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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/26663/full/26663/summer-internships-spark-jewish-interest/ <br /><br /> <b>Summer internships spark Jewish interest</b> <br /> Friday, August 5, 2005 | by <p>lee bialik </p> <br /><br /><p>Irena Pikovsky thought planning a two-hour bingo and pastry event for seniors would be simple.<br /><br /> But to pull it off, she needs a great sound system, translation for immigrants, an announcer who would speak “ridiculously” clearly, help for those with medical needs, food for those on special diets, appropriately sized bingo cards and outreach to make sure people attend.<br /><br /> “All the details that I never thought of I’m now doing,” said Pikovsky, 20, a summer intern at Jewish Family and Children’s Services in Palo Alto. “I must have five or six Word documents dedicated to those two hours.”<br /><br /> Pikovsky is one of 32 interns in the Kohn Program getting a taste of the working world with a Jewish flavor at 26 different agencies in the Bay Area.<br /><br /> The program, now in its 20th year, is administered by Jewish Vocational Service and funded by the Jewish Community Endowment Fund. It places Bay Area college students in Jewish agencies, where they develop job skills and learn about the local Jewish community.<br /><br /> Past Kohn interns include the associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, several rabbis and others hired by AIPAC, JFCS and JVS, to name a few, said Rebecca Bassin, the Kohn Program’s director.<br /><br /> All of the agencies are different, but the internships are all hands-on.<br /><br /> “We promise that they’re going to be interesting, substantial experiences,” Bassin said.<br /><br /> Pikovsky, a Cupertino resident, said she enjoys the hectic and complex work at JFCS, an organization that provides resources to Jewish and non-Jewish families and older adults. Her work includes planning events, calling potential donors to fund a mentoring program and visiting seniors and b’nai mitzvah-aged volunteers to monitor programs.<br /><br /> The psychology student at U.C. San Diego hopes to eventually become a clinical psychologist. Working at JFCS reaffirmed her career plans, she said.<br /><br /> “This is sort of the grassroots level of what I want to be doing,” she said.<br /><br /> In addition to their internships during the week, on Fridays the interns meet to study and discuss issues facing the local Jewish community, which for some is their first exposure to the community.<br /><br /> “It’s an easy way, it’s a portal through which they can become involved and learn about what the community has to offer,” Bassin said.<br /><br /> Another Kohn intern, Tom Sansani, 19, said his interest in marketing attracted him to the Israel Center, an agency that organizes Israel-themed programming for young adults.<br /><br /> Sansani, 19, who is studying political science and Hebrew at Columbia University, joked, “I can’t file (papers) and I can’t do anything that requires silence.”<br /><br /> The environment at the Israel Center is young, fun, social and anything but silent, he said, and his work includes going to conferences, preparing presentations about Israel, planning events and checking out locations for them. But Sansani said the most valuable part has been learning more about Israel.<br /><br /> “A ton of resources are at my fingertips that I definitely wouldn’t ordinarily have from my parents,” he said.<br /><br /> The Israel-born Sansani knows about Israeli culture from his parents and frequent visits to Israel, but in Benicia, where he grew up, the Jewish community was “nonexistent,” he said.<br /><br /> Other Kohn interns are: Sam Ackerman at Berkeley Hillel; Jonathan Bell at JVS-Employer Services; Jason Bernstein at New Israel Fund; Lee Bialik at j., the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California; Max Bien-Kahn at JCCSF Camp Kochav; Liat Blum at ADL; Clare Conlon at Albert L. Shultz JCC; Meghan Devlin at Jewish Coalition for Literacy; Shulie Eisen at JCRC; Benjamin Farber at Jewish Home; Marina Flider at Endowment Fund; Henry Freedland at ADL; Benjamin Friend at Citizen Film.<br /><br /> Also, Rachel Hillman at Shalom Bayit; Sarah Janoff at Jewish Family and Children’s Services in San Francisco; Amy Kahn at Jewish National Fund; Alyssa Kasten at JCRC; Iva Kesselman at Jewish Home; Simona Khersonsky at Hebrew Free Loan; Siamak Kordestani at AIPAC; Alexa Krasny at Osher Marin Camp; Isaac Kurlan at Holocaust Center; Dana Levy at S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation; Alicia Mog at Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay; Anna Neyzberg at JCRC, JIMENA; Danna Rubin at Traveling Jewish Theater; Max Siva at San Francisco Jewish Film Festival; Max Staley at Camp Tawonga; Robert Stern at Congregation Sherith Israel; Lesley Wynn at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav.</p> <p> </p>

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